African Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

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African Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

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The African Studies Program supports research, teaching, and outreach at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

10/05/2026

Join us this Wednesday at noon in 206 Ingraham as we welcome Michelle Moyd, Associate Professor of History and Red Cedar Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University, who is the author of Violent Intermediaries: African Soldiers, Conquest, and Everyday Colonialism in German East Africa. She will be discussing Africa's multifaceted but marginal involvement in WWI despite a surge of scholarly production and public interest during the Great War’s centenary (2014-2018) by foregrounding African and African diasporic peoples’ perspectives on the Great War, offering three unconventional ways of understanding its violent, but also generative, effects across different dimensions of their socio-economic, political, spiritual lives.

09/30/2026

Join us tomorrow for Africa Talks tomorrow where advanced graduate student affiliates present their research in conversation with community panelists, bringing engaging scholarship on Africa to public audiences off campus. Come listen, connect, and join the conversation!
Venue: Goodman South Library, 2222 S Park St., Madison, WI 53713
Time: 5-6:30pm
Details: africa.wisc.edu/africa-talks
of African Cultural Studies

09/29/2026

Join us this Wednesday at noon in 206 Ingraham as we welcome Professor of Gender Studies, Rachel Jean-Baptiste, from Stanford University to commemorate the 9th Jan Vansina Lecture. Vansina transformed the study of African history by challenging the prevailing assumption that societies without written texts had no history and developed methods for recovering histories through oral traditions and other sources.
Jean-Baptiste's talk will explore the little-known story of Dr. Eugène Jamot’s three métis children with Fatima Labané, a Fulani woman from French Equatorial Africa. After Jamot brought them to France and died in 1937, family, friends, and colleagues mobilized care, money, citizenship law, and social resources to secure their belonging. The talk examines how feelings of paternalism, loyalty, vulnerability, affection, shame, anger, and anxiety shaped their lives across colonial and postcolonial periods.
See details: https://africa.wisc.edu/.../to-be-worthy-of-the-name-of.../

09/28/2026

Mark your calendars!

Our faculty affliate, Jacqueline Mougoué, is organizing a one day virtual conference on Wednesday, October 14, titled "Across Borders: Innovative Perspectives in Cameroon Scholarship". More than half of the panelists are based outside North America, specifically in Cameroon, Togo, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, and the UK. The conference is co-sponsored by the Departments of Anthropology and African Cultural Studies, the ASA, the North American Association of Scholars on Cameroon, and Spears Books. The keynote lecture, by Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg, is part of the Africa at Noon series.
See details at https://africa.wisc.edu/conferences/across-borders-innovative-perspectives-in-cameroon-scholarship/

Department of African Cultural Studies UW-Madison International Division anthropology

09/22/2026

Join us tomorrow at noon in 206 Ingraham as we welcome Upenyu Majee, Inaugural Director of the Institute of Ubuntu Thought and Practice at Michigan State University and a UW–Madison alum. Drawing from his book Trending EAST, Majee will explore Ubuntu as a framework for engaging difference, asking questions, seeking restoration, and tending wounds, with particular attention to education and community building.

09/15/2026

Join us as we host Shadrach Kerwillain an ecologist from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München for our first Africa at Noon talk this Wednesday from 12-1pm at 206 Ingraham.

Liberia holds the largest remaining portion of the Upper Guinean Forest Ecosystem and is a global conservation priority due to its rich biodiversity. This talk examines how conflict has shaped forest conservation in Liberia, arguing that periods of unrest have enabled national and international conservation actors to advance conservation as the primary strategy for protecting forests, often at the expense of local communities.

09/08/2026

We are pleased to reintroduce Jeremy Foltz as our new Faculty Director, following his service as interim director over the past year. He is hosting our first event,
Director's Welcome Luncheon, tomorrow, Sept 9, 12-1pm, 206 Ingraham Hall (1155 Observatory Dr.). Come and learn more about our programming, resources, and awards, as well as our vibrant community of faculty, students, and partners across UW–Madison and beyond.
More info: africa.wisc.edu/event/fall-2026-welcome-luncheon-at-the-african-studies-program/

06/04/2026

Interested in studying, researching, teaching, or doing creative arts abroad? 🌎

Join a Fulbright U.S. Student Program info session to learn about opportunities available to UW–Madison students, staff, and alumni. Must be a US citizen.

📅 June 6 (9 AM CDT) or June 16 (6 PM CDT)

Register: go.wisc.edu/FUSPInfoSession

06/02/2026

On this day last month, standing before the center's “I AM BLACK EXCELLENCE” backdrop, staff of the African Studies posed for photos during the grand opening of the Center for Black Excellence and Culture.

Read more about the opening event here:
https://africa.wisc.edu/2026/06/02/centering-black-excellence-and-culture-in-madison-literally-and-symbolically/

05/12/2026

Join us tonight at 5:30 PM for Children’s African Story Hour at the University Apartments Community Center (611 Eagle Heights Dr.) to get a glimpse of Sanna Stanley’s childhood in the Democratic Republic of Congo through her book, *Monkey for Sale*. 📚✨

There will also be snacks, music, hands-on activities, and so much fun!

africa.wisc.edu/cash/

Address

Ingraham 205, 1155 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI
53706

Telephone

+6082622380

Website

http://africa.wisc.edu/

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